Too Much Money (4)
He had suffered a heartbreak. And in the worst possible way.
Louis groaned in agony, clutching his aching chest. Dahlia. He silently whispered her lovely name in his heart. A breathtakingly beautiful member of the forest race.
Louis was in genuine torment. Even when he had slowly poisoned his healthy father's meals to make him waste away, or when he had exiled his younger brother—who hadn't even hit puberty yet—from the family, his heart had never ached like this.
It wasn't just the pain of heartbreak; the mere fact that what he desired had slipped through his fingers right before his eyes caused him extreme stress.
Still... there was still a chance. Though the gentle approach had failed, he could easily claim her if he resorted to more drastic measures.
"..."
He had believed that without a shadow of a doubt, up until just a moment ago.
"What... is this?" Louis muttered to himself, his voice completely drained of strength at the sight unfolding before him.
He was not a man who habitually talked to himself. He believed nothing good ever came from voicing one's thoughts. In fact, far beyond merely avoiding self-talk, he was the type to weigh every single word he uttered with extreme caution.
In the Capital, where conspiracies and underhanded schemes ran rampant, exposing even a minor weakness meant getting torn to shreds.
Yet here he was, staring blankly and muttering aloud, completely unaware that he had just made a blunder he would normally never commit. The unbelievable sight before him had temporarily paralyzed his cognitive faculties.
Thwack!
"Squeal!"
A pathetic shriek echoed alongside the sickening crunch of breaking bones and tearing flesh. The problem was that these sounds were erupting simultaneously from all directions.
"W-What kind of monsters are—Aaargh!"
"S-Spare me!"
His subordinates were no mere street thugs. They were private soldiers officially employed by the Dorleans family, and their individual training and combat prowess rivaled the regular armies of neighboring kingdoms.
If they were properly equipped and deployed in urban warfare, they could easily hold their own against the elite troops of the proud Empire.
Yet those very soldiers were being utterly decimated. And by whom? A scrawny-looking human man and a slender elf woman. Just the two of them.
Crash!
One of his men, kicked by Martin, flew through the air and slammed onto the table. The impact knocked over a glass of wine, drenching Louis in red liquid.
Ordinarily, he would have flown into a rage, screaming about the filthy mess. But now, utterly overwhelmed by the surreal sight of the Martin couple thrashing his men, all Louis could do was blink in a daze.
It took the two of them a mere three minutes to completely incapacitate every single one of Louis's men. Once the storm passed, Louis sat frozen in his seat, blankly surveying his surroundings.
"Ugh..."
"Argh..."
The spacious restaurant was in absolute ruins. Thrashed and broken, Louis's men lay groaning all over the floor.
Yet, not a single one of them was dead. Though they were brutally beaten, covered in blood, and had limbs bent in directions they definitely shouldn't bend, they were all still breathing.
In other words, the Martin couple had fought with enough leisure to hold back, even while facing dozens of trained, able-bodied men.
Monsters.
Louis felt an unbearable wave of terror wash over him.
Step.
"Eek!"
As the couple approached him, Louis shrieked in terror.
I'm going to die. No, even if I don't die, they'll make me wish I were dead.
But the Martin couple didn't raise their fists against him. Instead, they simply sat back down in the seats they had occupied during the feast.
"Whew. Honestly, I was about to die of frustration, but thanks to you, I got to blow off some steam. Much obliged, kiddo."
Martin spoke in a highly casual, almost flippant tone, a stark contrast to his earlier demeanor. He ripped a piece of the tablecloth and wiped the blood off the back of his hand.
"The rod of justice is the only cure for a beast who doesn't even know basic human decency."
Dahlia's tone had also completely changed. With splatters of blood on her cheeks and across her face, she looked far more terrifying than beautiful. She even followed Martin's lead, tearing off another piece of the tablecloth to wipe the blood from her cheek.
Louis only then realized he had been completely played. This was their true colors.
"Y-You... No, you guys..."
From the cringeworthy displays of affection in the hotel room to the very fact that they were married—it had been a bold-faced lie from start to finish.
They had clearly known about the wiretap behind the picture frame from the very beginning.
"The rod of justice, huh... Well, physical therapy is indeed the best cure for a wicked bastard."
Martin said, casting a sticky, predatory gaze at Louis. Caught in a stare that felt like a predator sizing up its prey, the already terrified Louis began to tremble like a leaf.
But after a moment, Louis summoned the last of his courage.
"W-What do you want? What were you after that you went to such lengths to deceive me?"
Where had things gone wrong? Louis shouted, his voice thick with frustration.
"Is it money? Money, right? Fine, I get it. You bastards... you're after my family's fortune!"
If it was about money, that was actually a relief. Though his love had been betrayed and he had suffered immense humiliation, it meant he could at least buy his way out of this beatdown and leave in one piece.
"What the hell are you babbling about, you dumbass?"
But this was entirely Louis's delusion. Martin scowled as if he had just looked at a pile of garbage and spat out a curse.
"T-Then—"
"Yo... Honey, let's just finish him off."
"Eeek!" Louis shrieked again at Dahlia's chilling suggestion as she sat with her legs crossed.
"Forget it. As bad as this guy is, he's not a complete monster we need to tear limb from limb like that Big Boss guy or that troll bastard."
Fortunately, Martin shook his head, disagreeing with her.
"But still..."
"And seriously, stop with the 'honey' stuff already, will you? It's giving me goosebumps."
Louis didn't understand what they were talking about, but at the very least, it seemed he wouldn't be killed. Reaching that conclusion, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"But you know, looking at the goons he brought earlier, one of them actually knew how to use hypnotism."
But his relief was short-lived. Louis's face instantly drained of color once more.
"I see what you mean. You're going to use your Authority?"
"Yeah." Martin gave a brief nod to Dahlia's question and reached his hand out toward Louis.
"W-Wait! Stop!" Louis cried out in panic, but his resistance was utterly futile.
"He might not be a bastard bad enough to kill outright, but since he's done this much evil, shouldn't he receive a fitting punishment?"
"Exactly. This jerk deliberately served me nothing but leaves, claiming it was for my sake. I will never forgive him!"
Martin and Dahlia exchanged brief remarks, with Dahlia showing blatant fury as she spat out her final sentence.
"P-Please. No, I beg of you. Please...!" Louis finally pleaded, his voice cracking as he verged on tears.
Grab.
Regardless, Martin firmly gripped Louis's forehead with his outstretched hand.
"Hieee..."
Just that grip alone made Louis feel a terror as if his skull were about to split open.
"Got it? I'm being exceptionally generous here. So make sure you live a good life from now on."
Flash!
In an instant, a brilliant light erupted from Martin's hand, and Louis's consciousness was completely seized by a force boring into his mind.
"Ugh... Argh!"
The sensation of an irresistible, immense force thoroughly rearranging his mind. Louis shrieked in pathetic terror, but even that lasted only a brief moment.
*
*
*
Louis Dorleans, who had lived a life riddled with lies and deceit, had now become an upright man whose thoughts and actions were in perfect alignment.
Furthermore, after fixing Louis Dorleans's mind, Yohan manipulated the memories of all his subordinates sprawled across the restaurant floor.
He made them completely forget the fact that they had tried to assassinate the Martin couple here.
Now, those men wouldn't properly remember what had transpired in this restaurant today. They would merely believe that they had gathered for a feast, got into a petty argument among themselves, and it escalated into a bloody brawl.
And that, terrified by the ensuing chaos, the Martin couple had quickly fled.
Since it was such an absurd memory, they would likely keep it to themselves out of sheer embarrassment.
Moreover, once they woke up and saw how drastically their boss had changed, they wouldn't have the luxury to even bring up today's events.
"Whew. Using my power on dozens of people at once is pretty exhausting."
"Was there really a need to go through all this trouble just to keep them alive?"
As Yohan let out a sigh, Falco approached him and asked with concern.
"Like you said, just killing them all cleanly would be the easiest way. But we're not villains who beat everyone to death just because things don't go our way."
"That's true. We're a holy knight order, not a band of bandits."
That wasn't all. While manipulating Louis Dorleans's memories, Yohan had also subtly tweaked his twisted personality.
His extreme greed was replaced with altruism, making him willing to gladly share what he had with the poor.
His ruthlessness, which spared no means to achieve his goals, was transformed into an upright heart that pursued fairness and justice.
Before long, the newspapers published in the Capital might run a massive headline:
To be honest, directly interfering with someone's mind like this wasn't a power the Apostle of the Goddess should be using willy-nilly. But since the target was a villain like Louis Dorleans, he had no reason to hesitate.
Flash!
Soon, the Goddess manifested in the air. She glanced at Louis Dorleans's men sprawled on the floor, then floated over to the table and sat down.
"Yohan speaketh the truth. Though Louis Dorleans didst merely pretend to be a reader of thy fables at first, he hath now truly become one who followeth their teachings."
"Exactly. You could call it a form of re-socialization."
Yohan smirked, chiming in with the Goddess's words.
"Of course, My Apostle. As thou art well aware..."
"Don't worry. Honestly, messing with people's heads isn't really my cup of tea either."
"Indeed. 'Tis well that thou understandest."
A deity's power was truly formidable. If they so willed, a god could completely rewrite a person's entire mental landscape.
Well, considering he had already blasted a hole through dimensional boundaries to escape someone else's pocket dimension, feeling burdened by his Authority now was a bit silly.
Yohan chuckled to himself at the thought.
"Anyway, our business here is done, so let's head back."
"Okay," Falco nodded in response.
At the same time, having said her piece, the Goddess returned to her spiritual form and vanished.
"Whew."
Yohan took one last look around the devastated restaurant.
Tables collapsed as if a thoroughly pissed-off Billy had smashed them.
Men in suits sprawled across the elegant marble tiles.
And... Louis Dorleans, lying spread-eagled right in the middle of the hall.
Yohan and Falco leisurely walked out of the hall.
Though the process had been a complete mess, the end result was that Martin's Fables would spread across the continent even faster through the Dorleans Merchant Group.
To the public, the head of the merchant group, Louis Dorleans, had turned over a new leaf after reading the fables, so word of mouth was bound to spread like wildfire.